Syndicatie

U bent hier

cold water & ice swimming (IISA)

The water at the beginning of the season seemed to take an age to warm up, yet now it's nearing the end it feels like it's taken a bit of a nose dive! Not to be deterred I make the (feels like) bold decision to ditch the wetsuit and try swimming in skins. The last time I swam sans wetsuit was over a month ago, when the water was warm, the sky was blue, flowers were in bloom ... This time, although the water wasn't so cold at 17.3oc, when you're not accustomed or acclimatised to it, it's frankly a bit of a shock when you get in.

It was the shortest slog in endurance swimmer Lynne Cox’s 16-year career, at just 3.75km, but her arrival on bleak, inhospitable Big Diomede Island 30 years ago won global acclaim.

With every stroke across the chill waters of Bering Strait on August 7, 1987, Cox helped thaw the US-Soviet Cold War.

Her two-hour crossing from US Little Diomede Island to Soviet Big Diomede had been in planning for 11 years, and even as she ploughed through fog in 6C degree waters, Cox was not sure she would be permitted to step onto Soviet territory.

There are many descriptions to recovery from an Ice Swim. Some will describe it as “out the body experience” a “bad trip” or “black rain”. In some ways, it is a very personal experience because it is a hard one and painful, we all deal with it physically but mostly mentally in our own way. For me personally, the possible hard recovery is always part of my swim and my planning. My swim ends when my recovery ends. When I push further in the ICE I take into consideration that I have to come back and it will be steeper.

All organisations, groups and teams that are faced with a probability of treating hypothermia should be prepared to apply the best care available and not that which is merely available or assumed sufficient to prevent death.

Over the last few years of dealing with acute hypothermia injuries, I am reminded over and over again that no athlete is immune.

Firstly, you find wetsuits in your house……..everywhere. On the washing line, in the greenhouse, in the wardrobe and the shower cubicle. They are either dry or dripping or somewhere in between. When you want a shower you need to remove a wetsuit from the shower cubicle, which involves carrying one of the articles, normally dripping, from one afore-mentioned location to another.